This Scrappy Shift has a story to tell about the pieces of pink and white garments resewn for a second life in another place and time from their original purpose.

Some people will look at this and hate it. I look at it and love its busyness, diversity, colour, texture, quirks and angles – all stitched up with authentic simplicity and care.

This concept started with a friend’s shift from which I cut a pattern. I did this by placing an old sheet on the floor, laying the dress on top and cutting around it with 1cm extra all round for seams. This will be my pattern for future similar garments.

I then rearranged the rest of the sheet so it was on the cross (the diagonal grain) and cut two fresh pieces with irregular hemline created by the shaped fitted-sheet elastic randomly cutting across the bottom. I left the elastic in place and it is now hidden by the pieces of dress which fall down over the top of it. Cutting on the cross helps the finished garment drape less squarely and stiffly. Gathering various pink garments from my storage spaces and a metre of pink bobbles, I proceeded to cut pieces using pinking shears and randomly arrange then pin them on the sheeting. Son Max and Steph, see photo, called in for brunch and shared some time in this process. 

We placed a pocket front and back cut from a castoff (thanks Sally!) girls OshKosh tunic, and positioned two necklines to form my new neckline (one at front and one at back).  The only thing to avoid is having thick seams, buttons or clips near where your side or shoulder seams will be sewn. Once the ‘sheet’ was fully covered and I was satisfied with the look, I then sewed all the pieces directly to the sheeting using zigzag stitch, and sewed the front and back together at the sides and shoulders.

The hemline is irregular and pieces arranged so the bottom of original garments end there. The armholes were trimmed with pinking shears and zigzagged beside raw edge. The bobbles define the front neckline, while the back neckline is firm with the OshKosh bodice trimmed to fit.

This was not a particularly difficult or time-consuming project and I’m excited by the potential of making many more of these scrappy shifts from odds and sods in future.